eCommerce

Macy’s Inc. on Wednesday blamed warm weather, weak tourist traffic and excessive inventory for the company's worse-than-expected third quarter results. The company said it will not pursue spinning off its properties into a real-estate investment trust, but that it is studying real estate options for some of its most iconic stores.

American Apparel’s preliminary results for its third quarter are not looking very good.

The beleaguered retailer said it could not meet the deadline to file a quarterly report for the three months ended Sept. 30, noting that efforts related to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in October have taken up a good deal of its time.

But American Apparel released estimates in which net sales for the quarter were down 19.1% to $126 million.

Purchasing all the ingredients needed for a Thanksgiving meal just got easier for San Francisco residents.

Target and Instacart are partnering to provide a food truck featuring Thanksgiving recipes and coupon codes, as well as grocery delivery, in downtown San Francisco.

New York-based Janson Goldstein LLP has been tapped as the design firm for the Neiman Marcus store at Hudson Yards in Manhattan, Women’s Wear Daily reported.

The firm has a wide-ranging practice that includes both residential, hospitality and retail work, with a roster of clients that includes Holt Renfrew, Intermix and Saks Fifth Avenue.

The Amazon Echo smart home device represents a potential threat to Amazon’s competitors, but sales are sales.

Amazon Echo will be available in more than 3,000 stores around the country in time for the holiday shopping season. Select locations of ABT, BJ’s Wholesale Club, The Home Depot, Staples, Sears, Brookstone, RadioShack, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, Hhgregg, P.C. Richard & Son, and R.C. Wiley will offer Echo.

Visual social media network Instagram is taking a new step toward becoming a platform for commerce.

Instagram has launched a new program called Instagram Partners that is designed to help companies advertise on the social network. Each certified partner must have expertise in at least one of three defined areas: ad tech (buying and selling ads at scale), community management (managing comments and gaining consumer insights), and content marketing (sourcing and delivering content at scale).

Westside Market, a local New York City grocery retailer, is partnering with Instacart for delivery to the Upper West Side neighborhood.

Instacart customers on the Upper West Side will now have access to an assortment of Westside Market items, all delivered in as soon as one hour. Instacart will deliver from a select Westside Market location to start (110th Street and Broadway), and Instacart prices are the same as Westside Market's in-store prices. Westside Market has five stores in all.

Retailers are feeling confident about their overall financial situations, but less so about omnichannel investment.

This is a main finding from the 7th annual CIT Group Retail Outlook study conducted among 250 senior middle-market retail executives by Harris Poll. Although respondents are generally projecting growing sales and revenue, many feel significant investment toward innovation in an omnichannel strategy -- including website, mobile and social media channels -- will be needed to remain competitive.

Of all the celebrants of China’s annual “Singles Day” Nov. 11 holiday, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. was probably the happiest.

By midnight Nov. 11 China time (which is ahead of all U.S. time zones), Alibaba estimated it had settled about $14.34 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) through its Alipay payment platform on its China and international retail marketplaces.

Macy’s blamed warm weather, weak foot traffic and excessive inventory for the company's worse-than-expected third quarter results and said it is studying real estate options for some of its most iconic stores.